Our first podcast focuses on the ever diverse Cologne, which has been a centre for new and exciting trends in music ever since the 1950s. It was the city where Herbert Eimert started his 'Studio für Elektronische Musik' and was home to composers like Karlheinz Stockhausen and Pierre Boulez. In the early 90s, when electronic club music arrived in Germany, it fell on a very fertile ground in Cologne, making it known for its unique take on minimal techno, combining principles of electronic music with German folklore. The specific Cologne flavour of minimal was most prominently pioneered by Wolfgang Voigt (a.k.a Mike Ink) and his Kompakt, Profan and Studio 1 labels, along with producers and labels such as Mathias Schaffhaeuser and Trapez.
It would however be short-sighted to reduce the 'Sound Of Cologne' to minimal techno alone - the brilliant deep house of Andy Vaz's Yore label also hails from Cologne, as do diverse indie-electronica projects like Mouse On Mars, Popnoname and Von Spar. |
